


What A Hero Does

by laneypenn



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Gen, he deserved to be a hero please disney, i watched some eps of the '87 series and i miss hero launchpad, just a short one shot about an idea i had lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 07:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15528936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laneypenn/pseuds/laneypenn
Summary: Mrs. Beakley goes grocery shopping for Mr. McDuck and meets someone new.





	What A Hero Does

Date: September 18, 2008.

Time: 14:36.

Bentina Beakley is currently wondering why she took this job.

The mansion is a very nice place to live, of course. Bentina’s pretty sure she’s given the highest salary of anyone who works directly for Mr. McDuck, if only because she’s not afraid to tell him that she deserves to be paid well for her work. Compared to working with SHUSH, being McDuck’s housekeeper is relaxing. So technically, she knew why she took this job, but sometimes it could be frustrating. 

Grocery shopping, for example, was very tedious and required a lot of math. Bentina had to weigh the quality and price of the food she was buying carefully, and it was a dreadful chore. 

She couldn’t help but survey the other customers as she made her way to the front of the store to finally check out after hours of searching for an obscure item that McDuck had put on the list. It was in her nature… Or rather, it was something that was ingrained in her as a spy.

A middle aged man. Owl. Thick-rimmed glasses. His body was shaking with effort as he tried to reach the top shelf. Bentina carried on; the employees of the store were meant to help with items on the top shelf anyways.

Teenage girl. Pelican. Her hands were obscured in her hoodie pocket. Bentina watched her for a moment and stopped paying her any mind when she discreetly grabbed a set of earrings and shoved it in her pocket. She didn’t have to worry about petty shoplifters.

Older man. Possibly older than her, though Bentina couldn’t be sure. He was sweating and looking over the display of flower bouquets. Date night? Apology night? She noticed the band on his left ring finger. Apology night.

Young man. Striking looks… Bentina was sure any straight woman would be smitten. The cashier sure was. He thanked her as he took his items (Three six-packs of Mike’s Hard Lemonade - Was he even legal?) and headed out.

Young woman. She looked very tired, but her eyes dreamily remained on the young man who had just left. She held a small note in her hand and quickly tucked it in her shirt pocket before she started scanning Bentina’s items. 

“Your total will be $79.67.” Bentina scanned her debit card and paid for the items, then went to work wrapping each plastic bag onto her hands so she could walk all the way back to the manor without dropping anything.

She liked the exercise, at least a little.

Cradling the last few bags in a stack atop her arms, Bentina thanked the cashier and made her way out of the store. She’d hardly made it halfway across the parking lot before the young man who was in front of her in line approached her.

“Do you need any help with your bags, ma’am?”

“No thank you. I’ve carried more before,” Bentina froze when the young man grabbed the bag stacked in her arms like he was steadying it. It wasn’t about to topple over, why would he -?

“I think those guys are following you,” He murmured as he got close to her face. Bentina glanced behind him and saw a man pretending he was checking the time as he spoke into his watch.

Of course.

Bentina passed the bags she was cradling into the young man’s arms. “Maybe I do need a bit of help today.”

The man brightened and chirped, “You can count on Launchpad McQuack!” as he adjusted his grip on his hard lemonade to make sure he was able to carry Bentina’s groceries too. 

She felt concerned for a moment. “I have to walk home with these, though…”

“It’s no problem! I’m not really doing anything today, and I can stand to be late with my plans for tonight.” 

Bentina gave him another look-over. He didn’t seem like any sort of FOWL agent, nor did he seem to have any ulterior motives for helping her. He seemed more like a goofy, stupid kid with a lot of time on his hands. She smiled at him and they started walking. “That’s very kind of you. What kind of plans do you have tonight?” She eyed the alcohol, guessing he was going to take it to someone’s house party.

“It’s my twenty-first birthday! I’m gonna have a party at my hangar with a bunch of buddies from college,” Launchpad grinned at her. “Do you wanna come?”

Bentina laughed, which only earned her a confused chuckle from Launchpad. “Wait, are you serious?”

“I don’t see why not! The more, the merrier, right?”

Somehow it felt rude to turn down an invitation from the man who had just saved her a fight with an enemy agent. Bentina shrugged and nodded.

* * *

 

Launchpad talked a lot, she came to find out. His train of thought became a constant stream of words and Bentina found herself tuning it out as they walked to McDuck Manor. It was almost like white noise. 

“Hey, I don’t think I got your name!”

“Oh, right. You can call me Mrs. Beakley.”

“Alrighty, Mrs. B!”

She surprised herself when she cracked a smile.

* * *

 

Launchpad gazed around in amazement after they walked into the gated area around the manor. “Wow. You live in McDuck Manor?”

“I’m Mr. McDuck’s housekeeper. And I do his grocery shopping,  _ apparently. _ ”

“Neat!” Launchpad put his bags down on the steps and pulled out a notepad and a pen, starting to scribble something down.

Bentina eyed him suspiciously. “What are you doing?”

“Here ya go! It’s my address and the time of the party. You can bring a friend if you want, but only if they’re old enough to drink.”

“Oh… Yes, right,” Bentina smiled at the card. “I’ll be there. Thank you again, for helping me.”

Launchpad gave her a cheesy grin and a big thumbs up. “That’s what a hero does, Mrs. B!”

Bentina chuckled at him as he jogged away with his drinks and she went inside to stock the kitchen and then see if there was anything in her closet appropriate for a casual party.

**Author's Note:**

> just a quick story i wanted to write because this friendship is CRIMINALLY underrated. like please launchpad is so good and him inviting beakley, a 55 year old woman at this point, to his party with mostly college kids is In Character and simply sweet, alright? plus beakley likes launchpad even though he's an idiot. please join me in the beakley&launchpad friendship appreciation boat everyone


End file.
